Zojirushi BB-PDC20BA Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker, 2 lb. loaf of bread

We're not cooks. We live in a big city with plenty of bread for sale. We don't need something special, like gluten-free bread. Neither of us has ever baked a yeast bread in our life. So why the heck have we bought a bread machine? Desperation.We used to be able to buy good bread, but somehow everything has become Wonder (bubble) bread, more suitable as a pillow than as something chewy, substantial, and yummy. Longtime small bakeries we loved have cut back their distribution (Buona Forchetta) or vanished (StoneGround). Nobody--including Farmer's Market boutiques--sells European-style dense, flavor-packed whole-grain loaves in this town anymore.My wife and I looked at each other and said, maybe we are going to have to buy a bread machine.So this electronics engineer started exploring the world of bread machines.It's always good to see a basic design being refined. Zojirushi was doing that. I saw it in the model-to-model changes and details. Bread from their horizontal double-paddle machine would fit into our toaster, unlike the 6-inch by 7-inch slices of the vertical single-paddle machines. The latest Zoji was designed so I could start simply with standard, predefined setups, but as I got more skilled, I could program it as I wished from start to finish. Reviews and blog postings had nice things to say about the Zoji despite its cost. Zoji's US office was within reasonable driving distance if we needed to have it fixed. (Everything made in China seems to have its share of manufacturing shortcomings; all of the bread machines, including Zoji's, have some 1-star and 2-star reviews to ponder.)Now that I have made my 10th loaf of bread with our Zojirushi "Virtuoso" without a single failure, I am posting this success-story/review.I started simply, with two Bob's Red Mill bread mixes from the biggest Whole Foods Market in the area. It was really interesting to watch a collection of mixed powders be transformed by the incessant paddling of Mr. Zoji over just a few minutes into a well-behaved ball of dough, which the machine and fast-growing yeast then transformed into bread in 3 more hours. This was a good start; the two bread mixes made satisfactory loaves but I would not go out of my way to buy them in a store.Back I went to several stores, buying items new to me like Vital Wheat Gluten and King Arthur Bread Flour. I used several recipes in Zoji's colorful instruction manual for several more loaves. I was happy to see that it had measurements in grams, as I had vowed to avoid the trap of measuring large amounts of compressible powders by volume. Tablespoons, maybe, but no cups for me--I am using a small digital scale.Amazon Prime-shipped me Beth Hensperger's bread machine book, whose introductory sections I read and reread. I learned to test and adjust the dough ball just after it formed. A white bread was OK but the "Platinum" yeast I used practically pushed the Zoji lid up. A smaller wheat bread was OK but bland and soft. A cinnamon-apple bread was breakfastly sweet but its freeze-dried apple pieces from Whole Foods tasted more like styrofoam than fruit. My first really good loaf was an Italian olive-oil wheat bread in which I had replaced the recipe's basil with rosemary (an idea I stole from La Brea Bakery). That was so delicious that I made up 4 Ziplocs of essentially the same recipe and learned by making minor variations when I baked each. An artisanal baking book, by a baker who does not once use the phrase "bread machine", came home with my wife. I started measuring the starting temperature of the water and adjusting it so that it was always 80 degrees in the Zoji pan before I proceeded.All this time the Zojirushi Virtuoso behaved like a real trouper, never like a prima donna. I used four different "courses" (processes) from its repertoire--the regular and quick basic courses and the regular and quick wheat courses--and nothing ever went wrong, fell flat, burned up, jammed, refused to operate, crashed, or came apart. Cleanup has been easy with the method recommended by several Amazon reviewers: Fill the pan with water after it has cooled off, squirt in some dish detergent, let it soak at least half an hour, wash out, rinse, and dry. This is also all it takes to unpaste the paddles from their shafts.Today's bread approached what we are looking for. It was the Three-Seeded Whole Wheat from the Hensperger book (p.116). I had to convert the flour and dry milk recipes into grams using an Ingredients Chart from the King Arthur website, and have patience and then add a little flour--but with restraint--to a runny, sticky mix that only formed a dough ball when its seeds were added. All was well. I have learned to lift the lid--the Zoji safely stops and marks time--and adjust the shape of the dough ball with a nylon spatula before each dough-rise subcycle. The excellent Zoji instruction manual gives detailed cycle timing so there are no surprises.So there you have it. A total novice is now baking bread that pleases two critical people--his wife and himself. The Zojirushi Virtuoso may not be the only usable breadmaker in the world, but it has done everything it promised.

Oh, I cant tell you how much I love my zojirushi bread maker! I use it 1-2 times a day to make the most amazing breads and cakes! There are two things that I love the most in my kitchen; my zojirushi bread maker, and my zojirushi rice cooker. Whomever made this- thank you, just thank you! My bread is soft and moist and perfect each time. never over or under cooked. I thought all bread machine bread was like a hard log, but this beautiful creation proved me wrong. I get the same response from those whom eat my bread- after the first bite, their eyes widen, and I receive compliments galore. My parents are on a strict diet, and on their cheat days, they beg me to bring over bread! When the 14 year old boys in scouts (hubby is a scout master) come over, they ask for bread with honey as the "dessert". I mentioned that I make 1-2 loaves daily- that is how quickly my small family devours them. The bread that comes out of this thing is better than store bought and I only pay like $.50- $1.00 a loaf? (honestly I haven't calculated it, but is cheaper than a $5+ lump of coal (bread) from the store). Every single time I take a bite of bread from this thing, I practically cry out in song because the bread is just that good. This was the best buy ever. Along with my amazing bread maker, I bought "Bread Loaf Bags, Pack of 100 by Perfect Utopia", those will happily fit a 2 pound loaf or home made pizza; and most importantly, "The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook: A Master Baker's 300 Favorite Recipes for Perfect-Every-Time Bread-From Every Kind of Machine". I am so in love with my bread machine. It has been the best birthday present ever. I recommend the Zojirushi bread maker to everyone whom has tasted my bread, and I recommend it to you to! You wont be disappointed! This bread machine has been a life changer.Update: Well, it has been nearly a year since my purchase of the Zojirushi bread machine, and I still think it is the best kitchen purchase I have ever made (well, it is tied with my Zojirushi rice cooker). I use my bread machine at least 5 times a week, as I make bread for my family and my parents and our weekly get family get togethers. My bread loaves come out perfectly each time (given that my ingredients- especially my yeast are still good). MY bread is still adored by all we entertain and my 1st grader even says her school friends at lunch love it (I guess they trade lunches sometimes!). I love, love, love, love this bread machine and rant and rave about it every time my bread is complemented. I have saved so much money baking bread instead of buying it, and now my entire family cant stand store bought bread, even my toddler tastes the difference. I love that it takes only a few minutes to load the machine with ingredients and then all I have to do is take the fresh bread out when it is done. Thank you Zojirushi for making such an amazing and high quality product!!Update 1/4/2019I still love this bread machine!! It makes the best bread ever. I am still praised by my kids and others for the bread this machine puts out. Even after owning it several years, this machine works like a charm. I still use it at least 6 times a week. I mainly make my white bread and the occasional banana or zucchini bread loaf. I will note that after about a year, I do need to purchase new mixing blades. I clean my bread pan/ mixing blades by filling the pan with water and letting it soak an hour or so each time, than cleaning it with a soft cloth, followed by a water rinse. After a banana bread loaf I use soap and have to be more aggressive with the washcloth, but it is easy to clean none the less.I notice when I do make banana bread, it tends to remove the nonstick finish off the mixing blades quicker. I have since just had an "older" set of mixing blades that I use just for banana bread, while I use my newer set for my regular bread, so I don't have to replace them as quickly.When it is colder in my house (guessing 60 degrees or below), there is a higher chance my bread wont rise properly. I tend to end up tossing, making grill cheese sandwiches, or french toast with those loaves when that happens. The taste is still there, just not the light fluffy texture, and it is very dense. I cure this by heating the house, specifically where my machine is at, and baking the loaf during the warmest time of the day.I also have learned that, for at least my machine, placing both mixing blades to point in the same direction (i.e. both point north), the bread will rise evenly. I am not sure if there is some magical science to this, or if it causes the dough to rise evenly, but if they are not pointed in the same direction, I notice that one side will rise higher than the other. Took me a year to figure that out.I still recommend this machine to everyone who loves my bread! I get a good laugh that every time one of my brothers comes to visit, one of the first things they do is 'causally' walk into my kitchen and conveniently stand to talk in front of the bread and than after a few minutes, just nonchalantly cut a huge slice and smother it in our raw honey, and repeat until the loaf is more than half gone (well, at least they have the decency to leave one or two slices for my children, haha).This bread machine has been the best investment, with me only having a pay a few cents a loaf in ingredients. It has more than paid for itself.

Absolutely love this BreadMaker, even after just one use. It arrived very well packaged. Set up and cleaning is a breeze. The bread turned out really good: fluffy and light, great taste, and horizontal rise. Made a 2 pound loaf. The instruction manual and recipe book are clear and easy to follow. The machine ran very quietly not like our old breadmaker. The dual blending blades make for a good mix. Though this machine was quite expensive (nearly $400), I am not unhappy with the expenditure. The quality of the machine and end product are worth the price. Looking forward to trying the other recipes. I highly recommend this unit